I Know That You Know That I Love You
by Jinubean
Summary: post JD' A little something on the look Jordan and Woody shared during 'Judgment Day' WJ ship 'spoiler' rating for language and itty bitty content


**AN: A little something on "the look" Woody and Jordan gave each other in "Judgment Day". Some spoiler action in here so if you haven't seen the episode, you might not want to read this story, I'm not going to talk you out of it though! This idea's been in my head since I saw the show last night, and I meant for this to be a short OneShot sort of deal but it turned out to be an entire days worth of writing. If I didn't write it now, I'd have writer's block on my other story (ies) and that's no good considering I don't have the time to write them anyway! Haha Hope you enjoy! Remember to leave comments!**

**Oh, and I didn't separate this into chapters because I would have had 3 supremely short chapters and one super long one so this is just the story**

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**I Know That You Know That I love you**

_There was sadness in her eyes_, Woody thought, as he closed the book on his most recent case. _And was that fear?_

He sighed at his desk in a tiny corner of precinct 19. He opened the file of another homicide case and looked at the autopsy report. Jordan's cursive signed on the bottom. He closed that file and picked up another. _It's as if she was looking right through me…_

"Hey Woody, we're going to get some coffee, did you want to join us?" Matt Seely called. Roz Framus was standing impatiently next to him.

"He's got his head in the clouds," she exclaimed, nearly bouncing. "I need caffeine now, let's go!"

"Wait, I'll come," Woody exclaimed, dropping the newly retrieved file with the others. _Maybe it'll take my mind off things—like Jordan._

"What are you thinking about hot stuff?" Roz asked during the short walk to the coffee and donut place.

"Nothing," Woody lied.

"He's thinking about the gunman he shot down yesterday," offered Matt, "I wish I got cases like that. I mean, you saved Lily Lebowski's life. What I wouldn't give—"

"She shouldn't even have been there," Woody interrupted angrily. "She was interfering with the case."

Matt raised his eyebrows at Woody's curtness before requesting a large black coffee from the young woman behind the counter. Woody received his coffee and quickly left, claiming he had more work to do at the office before stopping for the day.

Roz watched him go saying, "Man, I thought we were cynical. That guy totally needs help."

"Yeah," Matt said, not really paying attention, "Well, I'm off to the morgue."

"To visit Lily?" Roz questioned knowingly.

Matt laughed, "Sadly no, but work does have its benefits!"

'-.,.-'

Matt was careful to tiptoe around the morgue. Even though he was a homicide detective, Dr. Macy did not seem to take a liking to him ever since he tried to get on Lily's good side during her mothers death. He admitted that perhaps the knight in shining armor to a sensitive, grieving princess was a little cheap, but he would do anything to be with Lily. Matt assumed that Macy had said something to her in the same way he had told Matt to stay far away from her, because she was less willing to talk with lately.

"Hey Lily," Matt said, poking his head in her office, which was full of cardboard boxes.

"Hey Matt," she said unsmiling, not looking up from what she was doing.

"Uh, can I help you with anything here?" He asked. She seemed to be preoccupied with what she was doing, but Matt wanted to use that as an advantage. By helping her out, he could play the 'nice guy'.

"No I'm good," she said. She did not even look up at him.

"You're sure?"

"Positive."

Taken aback at her cold demeanor, he said, "OK, I'll be here for a bit if you need me for anything."

"Sure." He slipped out as quietly as he had come in.

Lily felt bad for brushing him off because she really did like him, but Garret was right, they were not right for each other. He was a sarcastic ass where as Lily tended to be more caring toward people. _Besides,_ Lily figured, _Work relationships do not work out, ever._ Lily reflected upon her relationship with Garret, _How had it turned out so wrong?_ She snorted to herself thinking about how hopeless Jordan and Woody were.

"What's so funny?" Lily gasped frightened by the sudden appearance of the very person on which her thoughts dwelt.

"Hi Jordan, I didn't see you there. Trust me, I was not laughing. How can I even be happy when I have to go through the stuff that used to belong to a woman I thought was my mother but, in fact, was my aunt. I never even knew my mother." She sighed. Jordan could tell she was frustrated.

Jordan gave her an empathetic look and said, "Well, I know something that'll cheer you up. Nige and I are taking lunch orders. It's on Garret today so, as Bug says—"

"Yeah, I have to buy out of principal," she laughed, taking the clipboard and writing down her order.

"Thanks Lily, you were the last, so we should be back within the hour!" Jordan exclaimed. "And tell you what, when I'm finished with the next autopsy, I'll help you out here."

"Oh, you don't have to—"

"I insist."

Lily smiled genuinely and continued going through her mother's things. Jordan met Nigel in the hallway.

"Ready to go, love?" Nigel asked, collecting her clipboard. She checked her pocket, revealing a credit card.

"Well, I've got Garret's life savings so yes!"

He led her down to her vehicle.

'-.,.-'

They drove in peaceful silence. Lunch hour was Jordan's favorite time of day. Downtime that she could not omit, after all, it came after she worked hard on no sleep, when she was hungry, and she used it in order to sustain her for the remainder of the day. Her stomach growled menacingly.

Nigel was squirming in his seat like a child itching to ask a question.

Jordan rolled her eyes, "What is it?"

"I have to know—"

"On behalf of the whole morgue," Jordan finished, knowing he would not do it himself.

"It hurts that you can't trust me," Nigel cried foolishly.

Jordan grinned, "What?"

"That look that you gave Woody yesterday, what was that all about?" He innocently looked in her direction, as if he thought he could come out of this conversation with his entire tongue.

That was definitely the last question she expected him to ask. Nigel did not normally break out in spontaneous personal gossip, he was a private man himself and he never wanted to know more than he was willing to give away.

"What look was that?" _Bad move Jordan… _she thought, realizing that just by posing that question, he was going to pursue the subject further.

"You know the one. You were both in the forensic lab, he was with Bug, and you were with me. You seemed mighty quick to get out of that room but you didn't seem to be able to keep your eyes off of him."

She swallowed the lump forming in her throat. "What are you taking notes from Pollack? First you have to tell me why you've been so happy lately."

Nigel blushed before saying, "I bought a new cat."

Jordan laughed, "You've just set the rules," insinuating that if he lies than she could as well.

"OK, fine!" He exclaimed. "There's a girl. A girl who's not a psychotic kidnapper," he added resentfully.

"What? Nigel, attracted to somebody who's not psycho?" Jordan peeled with laughter.

"Hey, that's not funny. Now tell me what the look was all about," he pushed.

"Fine. You know we're not on good terms. That's all the look was. Me, trying to steer away from his mean ass."

Nigel looked skeptical but she assured him that she had given him all the facts.

Inside, however, she felt opposite. Secretly she knew that the look she had given him was a warning for him to stay away from her. The same reason she had taken Bug's case and had given him hers. After all her heartache, she was not sure if she could handle even being his friend. However even deeper inside, she wanted everything to do with him and wished that this situation had not befallen them.

She reflected in silence the look he had given her. As if the case he was working on no longer existed and it was just them in the room. His icy blue eyes shot daggers of hurt through her making her feel guilty for the falling out of their friendship.

They had ordered everybody's lunch and headed back to the morgue in a new silence. They were not uneasy or uncomfortable, but deep in thought. She knew that Nigel suspected more and said, "You won't tell anybody will you? You weren't really finding out on behalf of the morgue?"

Nigel looked to her and saw that she meant secrecy. He had never seen her look so scared of information getting out, even the day before when she had found out that the tabloid reporter had given out the name of the prisoner; she was angry but not quite as afraid.

"Of course love," He said. The fragile look she gave him made him want to take her in his arms and comfort her, something she would never allow of course.

"Good," she said, regaining her composure. "I've got Lily's and Garrets. You can take Bug and Sydney's"

"Perfect," Nigel said, smiling.

'-.,.-'

There was one person who could see through Nigel, however. He gave this person his lunch and silently sat opposite him.

"What's wrong with you? You didn't screw up my order just to bother me," Bug exclaimed, looking at Nigel seriously.

"I didn't really feel like it today," Nigel admitted, the truth was that he had forgotten to switch their lunches while he was thinking about Jordan and Woody.

Bug looked precariously at him.

"You know that look that Woody and Jordan shared yesterday?" Nigel volunteered, unable to resist.

"How could I forget? The tension increased tenfold and Woody was about a hundred times harder to work with after that."

"Well, Jordan told me that she was just trying to avoid him, which is believable she hightailed it out of the lab pretty fast, but I think there's something more there," he said.

Bug looked distastefully at him, "Are you stupid, of course there is. He's been pining after her for years, everybody knows that."

"I think the bloke just needs a little nudge," Nigel suggested.

Bug looked up to him with a frightened expression on his face, "Jordan would murder you. And then she would cover it up by performing your autopsy."

Nigel's grin of inconceivability made Sydney laugh, "I think that they just need some time to work things out on their own."

"That'll never happen," Nigel replied.

"Even if you did push Woody into her life, she'd just break his heart again. It's best just to leave them to their own devices," Bug suggested.

"Like you," Nigel said. "You'll die a lonely old man, Bug, by not taking any risks."

"You shouldn't have to take risks in life," he said philosophically, "You should just be."

"Spoken like a true scientist I suppose. We are all here, we don't know why," Sydney laughed, stuffing the remainder of his sandwich into his mouth. He scored two points in the bin and left Bug and Nigel discussing the finer points of life.

In the corridor, he ran into one of the starting topics of their discussion, Detective Hoyt.

"Sydney," he said, exasperatedly, "Do you know who's on the Pensata case?"

"Yeah, I'm assisting Jordan on that case," he replied.

He noted the vein that bulged in his temple when he mentioned her name.

"Great," he muttered.

Sydney led him to the trace evidence lab where Jordan had finished her lunch and had already begun looking over the body. She was removing evidence from underneath the victim's fingernails.

"Sydney, come look at—"

She stopped short upon seeing Woody behind him.

"You're on this case?" Jordan exclaimed, perhaps a little too vindictively.

Woody sneered at her, "No, I'm just here because I like seeing Sydney."

Sydney swallowed a lump in his throat. He was unwilling to leave the two alone in the same area together but did not want to be stuck in the middle of World War III. "I'll be right back, um, scrubs, you know."

They were alone in the room together.

Woody did not know what to think; he sweated and brushed his hair back with his hand leaving it more untidy than it was before. His blue gaze tried to catch her brown one as she looked over the body in silence, which was far more awkward than he had expected it to be.

She concentrated on what she was doing, uncovering evidence, and testing it. She was silent because she did not know what to say to him. Talking about this new case seemed too normal for her. After what they had been through together, she wanted to scream and yell at him but instead stayed civil.

Sydney reentered the lab. Jordan immediately dropped what she was doing, "I'll be back in a while, Syd just continue from where I left off."

Flustered, Sydney agreed as Jordan removed her goggles, setting it in its place and quickly leaving. She headed straight for her office certain that Woody would not follow her. _Why am I acting like this? I knew that eventually we would have to work alone on the same case. I knew that it would be difficult. _"Why am I running away?" She cried to herself. She was angry enough to start throwing things around her office but she felt helpless.

"Because that's what you do."

She caught her breath, and plastered a fake smile on her face, "Woody!"

"Jordan," he answered unemotionally. He casually leaned against the threshold, looking at her. It was not the same look as the day before; it was more intense. This time she felt that she was definitely the object of his gaze and nothing else. Torn between yelling at him, forcing him from her life and taking him into her office and crying on his shoulder she, instead, stood cemented to the spot, her lips parted and her eyes catching his gaze.

He melted. This time it was apparent, there was hurt in her eyes, a pain that he had caused and he could not bear it. Part of him wanted to hold her and kiss away her pain. Another half of him told him to turn around and never look back, the hardened part of him, the part that did not agree with Jordan in the least.

"Jordan this has to stop," he said. He did not ask her if she wanted to stop playing games, he did not ask if she wanted to put the entire situation behind her, he simply told her that it had to stop. "It's affecting our work."

His words spoke more to her than she realized and she felt a warming in her heart at his gravely voice. She felt his anguish as tears threatened their escape, "I know. I just don't know where to start, Woody." She did not add that she thought work was all he cared about recently.

He finally broke their gaze and she felt herself float back to earth. He entered the office and closed the door behind him. Her heart beat quickly in her chest. She felt trapped in this room with him and the only way out was to throw him.

"Do you want to talk?" He asked gently.

Her barriers were coming up, she was protecting herself again, "It doesn't look like you're giving me much of a choice does it?"

He was surprised at how well he was containing himself with her attitude. He thought that as soon as he saw her he would explode with spite and despite his best interest, he still followed her to her safe place. He spoke honestly to her, "I'm just trying to prevent you from running again."

His words took her back a step, like a blow to her pride she let her defenses slip for a moment revealing in her face what she felt; fear. She swallowed the lump in her throat, offering him a seat.

"We can talk," she agreed.

Woody nodded; he tried to summon a comforting grin but things like that seemed to elude him lately. He took a seat and stared at his folded hands. They had shared quite a few moments on that sofa. "Where do we start?" His voice cracking as he looked up to elusive gaze.

"Let's start with why," she said nervously, looking to the door frequently. She felt as ambushed as a rat in a cage with the cat licking its chops on the sofa.

"Ok," he answered quietly, "I think we already know the answer to that but we can go over it again. I was already tired of your game and then the moment where I thought I would die, and when you thought I wouldn't hear what you said, you told me how you felt. Then, just to remind you, I told you that I didn't want your pity and to stay out of my life. That's why," he said with finality in his tone, "and bringing that up, always makes you angry."

Hearing these words from his mouth in such a simple way struck Jordan as hurtful. "If you're here to be cynical, you can leave," she told him.

"I'm not, Jordan," he assured her.

She was uneasy about this entire situation, but he pressed on. "I think we know the reason we are the way we are. We've had years to work things out and we haven't. Let's skip the formalities."

There was silence that they were not willing to break because going any further meant that they would be discussing the way they felt for each other, and Woody did not want to continue if it turned out like every other time he opened himself up for her. He did not want to tell her the one thing that throbbed in his heart if it meant that she felt differently.

He took a deep breath and swam away from shallow waters. He found his voice tortured with emotions, "Jordan, I still love you."

His admittance came quickly but Jordan could not say it was unexpected. The look in his eyes suddenly dawned on her. She remembered the eventful day after been trapped in the mine; he had come up to make sure she was in no harm before turning away. His direct stare with a hint of torture. It was love. Her broken heart twisted. She would have to come up with something. He just laid his heart on the line again for her. _Why does he keep doing this?_ _Does he expect me to go crawling to him?_

Her delay was a long one. Woody thought that, perhaps, he should have given her more time to think about the situation. However, more time would have caused them to drift further apart. He was determined not to botch this attempt, continuing as if he was not waiting for her reply.

"I've been thinking a lot lately; about you," he stated unnecessarily, "I'm starting to think that maybe I've become a cynical bastard over the past couple of months and I want to apologize. Not that my apologies will change the way you feel about us," he trailed off at her sharp intake of breath.

"Woody, maybe we should continue this conversation another time," her voice was breaking as she bit her lip trying to prevent the tears from falling.

She was about to open the door for him as a signal of his departure but he stood suddenly. Her skin shuddered as he touched her face gently. Her mouth slightly open out of surprise and her breath quickened with her heart rate. His lips took hers for a moment and a rush of emotion flowed through her body.

Her brain swam as he said sadly, "I didn't expect you to feel the same way. I was hoping you still did, but I guess we were never meant to be."

She bit her lip as he turned toward the door. Her hand reached toward his face, and he turned momentarily to see silent tears streaming down her face. Her hands clutched the back of his head and forced him into her. He began kissing in return, his tongue flickering into her mouth. One hand went to her waist and the other the nape of her neck, pushing her into him passionately.

They broke, looking into each other's eyes. Woody was unsure if he wanted to know what this meant. Was she replying in the affirmative or was this part of her game, one-step forward two steps back?

"I thought you hated me," she said, "if you couldn't accept that I am who I am, there would be no future for us."

"Jordan, I love you for who you are," he pulled her close and she did not resist. He kissed her forehead and felt that he would never let her go. She did not shy away at his hand and he felt that this was the biggest accomplishment.

"I love you too," she whispered. Relief swept off her shoulders. She no longer had to cart around the emotional baggage that he had handed her she was free to express herself with him. She let go of all the hurt and pain letting love flow through her veins.

Happiness enveloped Woody holding her tightly he exclaimed, "I've waited a long time for you to say those words to me." Looking into her face and wiping her tears with her thumbs.

"I'm so sorry, Woody—"

He interrupted her with a smile, "Let's forget what's happened and start fresh, OK?"

Jordan nodded in agreement and they separated. Before he reached for the door, he kissed her cheek and slender neck. Shivers raced down her spine as she grinned and followed him to the door. Folding her arms, she watched him walk down the corridor as she leaned against the threshold. She had never felt so happy.

Neither had Woody. With a knowing grin on his face, he made his way toward the elevator, passing a group of conversing coroners in the corridor.

"Thanks Sydney," he muttered. Nigel and Bug turned to Sydney as looks of utter disbelief crossed their faces.

"What's going on out here?" Lily exclaimed with a smile, coming out of her office to see Nigel, Bug and Sydney standing in the hall. Lily looked to Jordan's office at the end. The grin on her face and the laughter in her eyes told Lily the story as she turned and closed herself in her office.

"You didn't," Nigel whispered cynically.

"I did," admitted Sydney, who grin was equally as wide.


End file.
